In the UK, universities do not have a specific police force that responds to crime on university campuses, with the exception of Cambridge University Constabulary[1] and, until 2003, Oxford University Police.[2][3] Instead most universities have a police liaison officer seconded from the area's police service. The liaison officer can provide crime prevention and recruitment information, patrol of campus site and create links with community as part of the national Community Policing Strategy. It is also known for officers to take lectures in policing for students studying law, police studies etc.[citation needed] This allows students to gain first hand knowledge on policing and real life scenarios that the force faces.

Most universities will have a security team responsible for patrolling the campuses.[citation needed]

Rather than traditional police colors, cruisers at some institutions sport the livery colors of the university they serve.

Most university police officers are commissioned through their state Police Officer Standards and Training (POST) after completing established training and pre-licensure preparation. This is usually equivalent to that of a municipal or state police officer. They routinely attend the same police academy as local or state police officers.[citation needed]

Many departments operate some of the same units as municipal agencies such as detective units, special response teams (SWAT or SRT), canine units, bicycle patrol units, motorcycle patrol units, and community policing units. In some cases, campus police agencies are better equipped and staffed than municipal and county agencies in their area due to the significant amount of funding available in a college environment.[citation needed]

The campus police in many state owned schools have statewide authority and jurisdiction similar to that afforded to state police[citation needed].

Hawaii, Idaho, and New Hampshire are the only states in the US to not have a statutory provision for the commissioning of sworn campus police officers.[citation needed] They were joined by Oregon until 2009, when that state revised its system of Campus law enforcement in Oregon.

in the 2004-05 school year, 74% of college campuses had sworn officers with the power to arrest, and 90% of these departments were armed[4]

92% of campus police departments are responsible for handling their own dispatching, which means that they are completely self-sufficient agencies. They do not rely on the city police around them to take on their responsibilities.[5]

Officers of the Colorado State University Police Department and the University of Colorado (Boulder) Police Department, University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) Police Department are commissioned officers of the state of Colorado, but also hold commissions through the cities where their universities are based (respectively Fort Collins and Larimer County for CSU; the City of Boulder for CU; Colorado Springs and El Paso County for UCCS).[6]

Both The University of Delaware Police and Delaware State University Police are fully accredited police agencies with full police powers, equipment and Council on Police Training (State Police Academy) Certification.

The University of Minnesota employs its own campus police, the University of Minnesota Police Department (UMPD). UMPD enforces law on all University property, and works closely with the Minneapolis Police Department to enforce the law in neighborhoods within close proximity to the University, such as Dinkytown. Additionally, UMPD employs a part-time student security force known as the Security Monitor Program, which provides security escorts around the campus area, patrols campus property, and works with UMPD to enforce University, Minneapolis, and Minnesota law around the campus area.

Campus police can be under two options: Private colleges have police agency status under GS 74E (Company police act) while state university system officers and community colleges have state law enforcement powers, such as mutual assistance, extraterritorial jurisdiction of one mile, the same as municipal police and can also enter into mutual assistance agreements. All police officers must be NC Basic Law Enforcement Training (BLET) certified and pass all state standards for peace officers.

The University of North Dakota (UND) Police Department is the department that is primarily responsible for patrolling and responding to calls on the UND campus. The police force is on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The police force also works with students and campus organizations to prevent and educate students about crime and the laws that are most applicable to students.

State law in Ohio authorizes the board of trustees of a university to appoint police officers to serve their institutions and jurisdictions. All police officers in Ohio, including university police officers, are trained and certified to the same standards, as overseen by the Ohio Peace Officer Training Commission.[7] As such, university police officers have the same authority to carry weapons and make arrests.[8]

In Virginia, state law 23.234 authorizes university police officers to be armed and vests them with the same authority as other types of police officers in the State. All police officers must complete academy training mandated by DCJS.[26][27][28]